PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — SEPTA has deployed 88 “outreach specialists” to ride the system, while discouraging crime and to helping riders feel safer.
Ted Turner of West Philly started several weeks ago as a new SEPTA outreach specialist.
“Basically, what we do is, we’re here to observe and report, first of all — to make the public and the transit riders feel safe,” Turner said.
Turner works for Scotlandyard, one of three private security firms SEPTA has hired for the $6 million-a-year initiative.
All 88 security employees are riding the Broad Street and Market-Frankford lines, and walking the Center City SEPTA concourse. They don’t have weapons, but they have cell phones, which they use to alert SEPTA transit police of trouble when they see it, such as suspected illegal drug use, people fighting, or someone in medical distress.
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Turner says, in just the first few weeks on the job, he has already seen examples of things that might make people hesitant to ride SEPTA: “People in distress from drug use, the sleepers, the people smoking weed, and anybody [needing] medical help.”
SEPTA General Manager Leslie Richards says, with 200,000 vehicles, the 210 Transit Police officers on duty can’t be everywhere.
“Our system is very large. So, unless we have a police department of thousands and thousands, we cannot be everywhere at once,” Richards said. “We need as many eyes and ears — and we need as much help — as we can.”
SEPTA Transit Police Chief Thomas Nestel says the outreach personnel are meant to provide an extra presence to help riders feel safer.
“This is a work in progress that has tremendous potential. It is not a replacement for police,” Nestel said.
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“This is about having additional bodies out on the system so that riders see a SEPTA representative watching over them and making sure that they are safe.”
Richards says SEPTA has begun talks with the transit police union about increasing compensation to help fill the transit police shortage.
Violent crime on SEPTA spiked during the pandemic, but the transit authority says it is beginning to level off as ridership slowly grows.